Colorado State University in Fort Collins was founded in 1870 as Colorado Agricultural College, according to its faculty manual, and describes itself as Colorado’s land-grant university. It reports a record total enrolment of 34,412 for the 2025-26 academic year. Amy Parsons is its 16th president.
The College of Agricultural Sciences has five departments, covering agricultural biology, agricultural and resource economics, animal sciences, horticulture, and soil and crop sciences. The Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station supports eight research centres across the state, including the 1,065-acre Agricultural Research, Development and Education Center north of Fort Collins and the Arkansas Valley Research Center, founded in 1888. The college runs an Ag Innovation Center that aims to connect Colorado farmers and ranchers with agtech companies, researchers and investors, and takes part in CSU Spur, the CSU System campus at Denver’s National Western Center. It describes a partnership with Nutrien, whose scholarship has supported 140 students since 2019. Forestry is taught in the Warner College of Natural Resources.